Windows Phone Answer to iPhone 4S’ Siri: Ask Ziggy

Jan 6, 2012 News, Uncategorized, windows phone

Ever since was introduced to the market as the most impressive feature of Apple’s latest smartphone, rivals have been trying to come up with voice recognition applications to keep up with the game.

Now, Shai Leib, a developer focusing on the Windows Phone platform, has created “Ask Ziggy“ an app for the OS employing a simple user interface similar to Siri. Owners of Windows Phone 7 devices can use their voice to search for information and ask questions, rather than having to type queries.

With this app, users can look for stock info, addresses and directions, weather reports or a wealth of other data available on the world wide web.  Ziggy’s power can also be tapped to do complex calculations and the smartphone will provide instant answers.

With a rather bland appearance, Ask Ziggy uses Nuance voice recognition technology. In an interview for WPCentral, the developer explains how Ask Ziggy works: “The transcribed text is analyzed for patterns to detect commands or general queries. Commands are interpreted and routed to routine phone tasks such as emailing, texting, calling, social network updates, and getting directions.”

TheNextWeb comments that, while the app “is not great” since it’s no where near as powerful as Siri, it does, however “showcase the power of the third-party developer, and how far behind Microsoft is in this field. As it has every resource available to it, Redmond was just shown up by an individual.”

A fresh hot update will be released soon, but for the time being an earlier version of Ask Ziggy is available on the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Tags: Apple Siri, Ask Ziggy, TheNextWeb, windows phone, windows phone 7, windows phone marketplace